


The Rejection of Reyes Vidal

by Felicia_Rottingstone



Category: Mass Effect - All Media Types, Mass Effect: Andromeda
Genre: Break Up, F/M, Fix-It of Sorts, Gender-Neutral Pronouns, M/M, Rejection
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-08
Updated: 2020-07-08
Packaged: 2021-03-04 23:13:55
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,201
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25144480
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Felicia_Rottingstone/pseuds/Felicia_Rottingstone
Summary: I wasn't quite happy with how the game allowed the romance to end, so I rewrote it to feel more authentic to both my Ryder and Reyes' characterizations. Written in first-person, so it's easy to visualize your own Ryder.
Relationships: Female Ryder | Sara/Reyes Vidal, Male Ryder | Scott/Reyes Vidal, Ryder/Reyes Vidal
Kudos: 12





	The Rejection of Reyes Vidal

“I liked the way you looked at me. I didn’t want that to change,” he said, opening his arms as if to add, “can you blame me?” The easy smile didn’t reach his eyes, and I wondered if he was actually afraid of my response.

“Let’s talk about this later,” I said, looking pointedly back at Cora and Drack. Reyes’ smile tightened, but he nodded.

“Tartarus? Tonight?” he asked.

“You can buy me that drink you owe me,” I reminded him. 

“That’s what the whiskey was for,” he protested.

“No.” I shook my head and smiled at him, letting myself slip back into our playful banter. It was so easy to tease him. Too easy, sometimes. “The whiskey was for ditching me at the party. You still owe me a drink.”

“Alright, you win,” he laughed, the tension easing out of his face. “I will buy the drinks this time. They will not be so expensive without Sloan taking her cut. I’ll see you then.”

I watched him leave the cave, my smile fading and a dull apprehension forming in my stomach. To say I was conflicted would be an understatement. This wasn’t how I’d expected it to go, even discarding the truth about Reyes’ operations here on Kadara. 

Reyes Vidal was easy on the eyes and easier on the ears, and I’d known as soon as I’d met him that the smooth-talking bastard would convince me to lose my clothes at some point. And he had. And it had been worth it. But I wasn’t a lovesick fool. Even if I didn’t know he was the Charlatan, I’d known he had secrets, more secrets than I’d care to know about. I liked him, sure, but I’d never been under the illusion that I could entirely trust him. I’d expected him to sell me out at some point, double-cross me or leave me high and dry because it was the financially responsible thing to do. He hadn’t, though, and for all his lies, I couldn’t find much fault in his methods for taking down Sloan. She was a bully and a tyrant and Kadara Port was better off with Reyes. 

It was a pleasant surprise to learn that Reyes was the Charlatan, even if I wished he hadn’t lied to me. But the other surprise, the way he’d looked at me as we’d walked out of the cave, eyes full of fear and hope, that was a surprise that was more difficult to stomach. The idea that he wanted more from me than the fun we’d already had was a far greater shock than anything else I’d learned about him. Reyes was an experienced man, and hell, he’d probably romanced half the exiles at one point or another. I wasn’t exactly a blushing virgin, but I was younger, full of unearned confidence and lucky scores. The idea that a man like that wanted a future with someone like me was difficult to fathom.

All I had to do was decide if I wanted that too. 

By the time I arrived at Tartarus, I still hadn’t decided what I wanted. I hadn’t even been able to decide if I wanted to dress up for our rendezvous, and the best I could muster was freshly washed hair and a clean pair of pants. For Reyes, though, it didn’t seem to matter. When I walked into the room, his eyes lit up anyway.

“You look like you’re waiting for someone,” I said, the familiar phrase becoming a habit I didn’t want to break. 

“I think I’ve been waiting for you for 600 years,” he replied, his eyes watching my every movement as I took a seat across from him. We briefly talked about the plans for an Initiative outpost, but too soon, the conversation turned back to us.

“I neglected you during our first date,” he said, rising to his feet and offering me his hand. “Allow me to make it up to you.”

“Who knew you were such a romantic,” I remarked and took his hand, letting him pull me to my feet. We walked to the middle of the room before he pulled me against him, his hands on my hips, his chest pressed against mine, his knees bumping against mine with every swaying step.

“I hope you do not hold it against me that I am still thinking about the night we spent on the roof,” he breathed into my ear. “And that I am hoping we will be able to repeat the performance.”

“I had fun that night,” I told him. I could feel his smile against my cheek. “I always have fun with you. You keep me on edge, always waiting for the next surprise.”

“I want to keep surprising you,” he said, pulling back to look at me, one hand raising to brush a lock of hair back from my face. “I don’t want to keep secrets from you anymore, though. I want you to trust me.”

I bit my lip. Trust. That was the issue, wasn’t it? From the start, I’d known I couldn’t really trust him. Now that I knew everything, or at least everything important, I still felt like I couldn’t. 

“Trust is a hard thing to earn, a hard thing to keep,” I said, pulling his hand from my face. The look of hurt that crossed his face as I did made me almost second guess what I was about to do. Almost. “I’m glad I met you, Reyes. I think Kadara Port is in good hands with you. I think you’re a good man, even if you are a shady bastard.”

“All these compliments, and yet I think I don’t like where this is going.”

“I’ve had fun with you, and I’d be happy to keep having fun whenever I’m able to visit,” I said.

“But…”

“But it seems like you’re looking for a little more than just some fun,” I finished.

“Would that be such a bad thing?” he asked. “I’m not looking to tie you down, unless that’s something you’d like.”

“I know,” I assured him. “Maybe if we’d met under different circumstances, if I wasn’t a Pathfinder, if you weren’t the Charlatan, things would be different. If we were just a soldier and a smuggler, this wouldn’t be so complicated.”

“It also wouldn’t be half so satisfying,” he mused. He pulled me back into the dancing position, but this time he left a little more space between us, his hands a little higher. “We crossed the stars only to become star-crossed ourselves.”

I let out a sigh of relief, then let one hand creep up his neck, my fingernail scraping against his skin. “One last time, to celebrate?” I asked.

“I don’t think I could ever say no to you,” he admitted, then gently kissed the side of my neck. I closed my eyes at the pleasure of the way his tongue flicked against the sensitive skin there. As I closed my eyes to lean into his touch, I could almost pretend that I hadn’t just ended things. That was a reality I would have to embrace in the morning, but tonight, for one last time, Reyes Vidal was mine.


End file.
